Conversely, the remaining DLBCL of immunocompetent hosts display one of several molecular lesions, each associated with a small subset of cases and including activation of the proto-oncogenes REL, MUC-1, BCL-8 and c-MYC.

Our findings suggest that, although BCL2 and BCL6 are most often implicated in DLBCL, the possibility of the disruptions of BCL3, BCL8, BCL9, and BCL10 as a "primary event" in DLBCL cannot be ruled out.

To identify the putative gene, here named BCL8, involved in these translocations we have cloned the breakpoint region from a DLCL patient with t(14;15)(q32;q11-13) and the corresponding germ-line region from chromosome 15.